Statement of Purpose: Biomedical Engineering Graduate Program

Technology, Upbringing, and a Missing Piece

Technology is my lifeblood. I grew up in a technologically obsessed household. My father was a software engineer, and much like a musician might place his child's fingers on the keys of a piano at a young age, my father made sure I could type on a computer even before I could reach the keyboard on my own. I went to a technologically driven school from my early years onward and soon became fluent in programming. However, there was always something missing. I was a profoundly social and extroverted person. I loved performing. I often found that there was something isolating about simply wanting to make a computer work for the sake of a program.

I seek a profession that can merge my interest in helping the world with my passion for science and mathematics. Growing up in India, I was fortunate enough to be raised in a technologically literate, middle-class household. Although we were not prosperous by American standards, we were comfortable. But I was very much aware of the fact that many people lacked access to basic necessities, including healthcare.

Discovering Biomedical Engineering

Biology was a component of my education at college. As my interest grew in the field of biomedical engineering, it was as if a light had gone on in my consciousness. In no other field is the ability of technology to help others more starkly manifest. Biomedical engineering has enabled people to run who thought they would never be able to walk again, thanks to high-tech prosthetics. It has enabled people with extensive hearing loss to hear through the construction of better hearing aids. It has fostered the development of devices we now take for granted — such as MRIs and CT scans — that have enabled swifter and more accurate diagnoses, saving countless lives. It has also enabled the creation of new medications, treatments, and genetic engineering techniques to improve the quality of human life.